Fire-extinguishing apparatus.



" No.732,"99 0. PATENTED JULY 7, 1903.

B.., ZIMMBR'MAN.

FIRE BXTINGUISHING APPARATUS. APPLIO-ATION nun NOV. 24, 1902.

N0 MODEL.

' WITNESSES:

. muff a'TTORNEY no. vea'eeo.

Patented J'uly '7, 1903.

PATENT GFFICE.

EUGENE ZIMMERMAN, OF HORSEI-IEADS, NEW YORK.

.FlRE-EXTINGUISJHING APPARATUS.

$PECIFIGA'IION forming part of Letters Patent No. 732,990, dated July 7,1903. Application filed November 24, 1902. Serial No. 132,594. (No model.) i 7 To (ZZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EUGENE ZIMMERMAN, of Horseheads, in the county of Ohernung, in

the-State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fire-Extinguishing Apparatus, of whichthe following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,

is a full, clear, and exact description.

which are located in different parts of a building and held from tilting by fusible detents and to provide means operable by the shifting of the receptacle for liberating one of the elements in the presence of the other for the purpose of producing a gas rapidly and with suflicient pressure to forcibly expel the fire-extinguishing agent from the recep-- tacle through suitable spray-openings there-- in, the spray acting to quench the fire which fused the detent. It is apparent that many forms of apparatus may be employed to carry out this object, and for the purpose of clearly demonstrating whatI have sought to accomplish Ihave shown one form of apparatus in the drawings, in which- Figures 1 and 2 arefront and side elevations of my invention, the receptacle being normal in Fig. 1 and inverted in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 is an inverted sectional view taken on line 33, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a sectional view through the discharge duct or conduit. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the fracturable acid-containing bulb or bottle and its support.

Similar reference-figures indicate corresponding parts in all the views.

. end of this receptacle,as the normalupper receiving the fire extinguishing elements and certain devices hereinafter described, said opening being normally closed. bya cap 6, which may be attached or removed when de end, is provided with an inlet-opening 5 for sired and is preferably formed with a spray" opening 7.' Suitable trunnions 8 project laterally from opposite walls of the. receptacle and are preferably disposed in a plane beneath the normal center of gravity and may be slightly to one side of the plane of the vertical axis of said receptacle, and the lower ends of the hanger 3 are pivotally attached to these trunnions, so that when the function of the detent 4 is destroyed the receptacle will readily tilt by its own gravity to an inverted position, as seen in Figs. 2 and 3. The hanger 3 is shown as pivotally suspended in bearings 9 on the support 2, and

when the receptacle inverts itself the momen-, tum imparts a swinging movement to the hanger, and therefore affordsa wide range of action for the fire-extinguishing liquid over the fire; but it is evident that the receptacle fire-extinguishing liquid, such as a soda solution, and is provided with opposite sprayjets 11, projecting through apertures in the side walls, said jets being connected with perforated tubes 12, which are located within the receptacle and extend from the ,jets to points in proximity to the normal upper end wall, the perforations in said tubes being normally above the level of the solution, so as to prevent leakage, and are immersed in the solution when the receptacle is inverted, as seen in Fig. 3. A spindle or guide-rod 13 extends axially through the receptacle to receive and guide a sliding weight 14:, one end of the rod being secured to the normal bottom may be otherwise mounted to effect the same The detent 4. serves to end wall of the receptacle, and is provided with a spring-buffer to receive the impact of the weight, and the other end of the rod enters the inner end of the spray-opening 7, which is slightly enlarged to permit the outflow of the fire-extinguishing fluid when the of the receptacle and imparting to it a swinging motion due to the momentum. A fragile tube of glass or equivalent material is supported in a suitable holder 21 in the path of the descending weight and contains an acid,so that when the weight descends duringtheinversion of the receptacle the tube is fractured and liberates the acid in the presence of the soda solution, thereby combining these elements and generating a gas in said receptacle. This gas operates to compress the liquid fire-extinguisher and forcibly expels the same from the receptacle through the tubes 12, jets 11, and spray-opening '7 and onto the fire which fused the detent, and thus squelches said fire. The glass tube 20 is open at its normal upper end to receive the acid and is afterwardclosed by a suitable cap 22, said tube being mounted on the support 21, which in turn is adjustably secured to the guide-rod 13 in proximity to its normal upper end. This end of the rod is also threaded and receives suitable locknuts' 24 and a clamping-finger 25, the clamping-finger operating to hold the cap and tube inplace, and the lock-nuts serve to lock the support 21 and finger 25 to the rod 13, one of thenuts, as the normal lower one, acting as an abutment for limiting the downward movement of the weight when the receptacle is inverted from its normal position. The receptacle is first partially filled with the desired fire-extinguishing solution and the cap placed in position to close the inlet. The acid-containing tube 20 is then seated in the support 21 and clamped by the finger 25 and lock-nut 24, and the receptacle is then hung in its hanger, after which the fusible detent is socured in place. The apparatus is now ready for automatic action in case of fire. When this occurs, the detent is fused, and the receptacle being released then tilts to an inverted position by its own gravity, during which operation the weight descends along the guide-rod and breaks the acid-containing tube, and the acid mingles with the soda solution or equivalent material and forms a gas with sufficient pressure to expel the liquid,as described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an automatic fire-extinguisher, an invertible receptacle having an outlet, a guide-- rod centrally and axially in the receptacle and fixed to one of its end walls, a sliding weight guided on the rod, a support mounted on the rod and projecting laterally therefrom, and a glass tube attached to the support in the path of the weight.

2. In an automatic fire-extinguisher, an invertible receptacle having an outlet, a guiderod centrally and 'axially in the receptacle and fixed to one of its end walls, a sliding weight guided on the rod, a support adjustable on the rod, means to hold the support in its adjacent position, a breakable tube on the support at one side of the rod and in the path of said weight.

3. A fire-extinguisher comprising an automatically-tilting receptacle adapted to contain a fire-extinguishing fluid and having one of itsend walls provided with an inlet, a removable cap for the inlet, a spray-jet through one of the side walls of the receptacle, a tube having one end connected to said jet and its other end perforated and projecting above the liquid when the receptacle is normal, a guide-rod in the receptacle, a weight sliding on the rod when the receptacle is tilted from its normal position, a clamp secured to the rod, and a" breakable tube held by the clamp in the path of the moving weightfor the pur- 

